Talking about the impact of fame on her personal life, Swank, 40, who won a best actress Oscar for Boys Don't Cry, said:

"I got this award last night at the Outfest for my work in Boys Don't Cry, which has been 15 years now. I started the [transgender] conversation with that. But the presenter got up and said, 'When I was 19 years old and I was questioning my sexual identity, I was looking for things that helped me connect to myself, and Boys Don't Cry was a pivotal moment and it changed my life. And in fact, in a lot of ways it was my lifesaver.' I never became an actor for that. But that became this side effect of it, and it is so touching."

"My sister is transgender," Arquette added. "As a sister, a sibling of a transgender person, it's really scary when you're growing up, especially in the world of the early '80s. You're going to get killed, people are going to beat you up. People are assholes out there; it's a dangerous world. And also, will you be accepted? Will you find someone who loves you, who accepts you as you are? So when I saw that movie, it just was so important to me."

Of her ideal role, Witherspoon said she wanted to play Beyonce. "I just want to be her," Adams confessed.

Recalling her most embarrassing Hollywood moment, Witherspoon said: "Bad auditions, where you just totally f—ed it up. I did this audition for a director and I really wanted that part. I got to the end of it and I thought I nailed it, and he was like, 'Why are you playing it stoned?'"

See more from the roundtable discussion in the latest edition of The Hollywood Reporter

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